Chicks Dig Giant Robot Dinosaurs
by AmbulanceRobots
Summary: RiD 2015. Because nonsense happens when you share close quarters with the same people for extended periods of time. My mind has grabbed a hold of these two and will not let go. Ah, well. Mostly just fluff, from the friendly to the thinly veiled more-than-friendly. Updated sporadically, and not necessarily posted in chronological order.
1. Chapter 1 - MIA

Strongarm threw more power to her engine as she put her tires deep into the loamy, earthy hill. Her current assignment was taking her out into the forest, into parts hereto unexplored by her, where the vegetation was thick enough to scratch against her plating, and the terrain was rugged enough to give even her high suspension and hefty frame a fair bit of trouble. Her quarry's alt form had _legs_, so it was no wonder he had managed to wander out here so easily.

Grimlock had been MIA for a few Earth hours, now.

The Lieutenant had been hailing him on the coms after his tracker had stopped moving while he was supposed to be on a forest patrol. Oh, he'd been responsive, but when asked to return to base, all he'd said was "I'm coming."

That was five breems ago. And it was the same response as those from ten, fifteen, twenty breems ago.

Needless to say, Bumblebee was not pleased. An attempt to dispatch Sideswipe to recon with the wayward Dinobot had resulted in an elaborate whine about what branches did to fresh wax. As such, it fell to Strongarm to head out to find their missing parolee. Not something she considered fun (or safe), but the Lieutenant had given her a direct order, and his expression told her explicitly that any refusal would be taken _poorly. _At least she could find amusement that Sideswipe had earned himself double shifts elsewhere.

She checked her GPS against Fixit's coordinates, and plowed through more foliage. This planet was so soft and leafy and unkempt, not like the formal structure and clean lines of Cybertron (her mind did remind her that there _were_ still wild areas of Cybertron, where animals, and much worse, prowled confidently around, and where the ground was not friendly to undercarriages). Still, she found far more to enjoy than to dislike; this was Earth, after all, where the last Prime had managed to put the kibosh on the Decepticon warlord. And no matter what others might say about organic species, Strongarm liked humans. They had strange customs—some of which were rather gross—but size and composition of body structure aside, she found them more like Cybertronians than unlike. Earth was still the best assignment in the pool, ever.

And then she took a tree branch to the windshield, and her opinion was disturbed _ever_ so slightly.

Her HUD blipped, she was within yards of her target, and she decided to forgo tires for pedes. She picked quietly through the underbrush, boosting power to her audials as she went. It had been a few weeks, and she still wasn't quite sure what to make of Grimlock, and she'd really rather not surprise a toothy Decepticon that could bite her clean in two. Bumblebee seemed to trust him, and she trusted her CO's judgment near absolutely, but her tank still flipped a bit when within arm's reach of the massive former prisoner. And he had some slagging long arms. Sure, he'd made some difference against Underbite, and had so far not made any moves against anyone else, and for a member of a criminal organization that was known for a great deal of dislike for any non-Cybertronian race, he genuinely appeared to be awfully fond of their human landlords (he'd spent the first few days of his freedom lumbering about with Russell perched on his broad muzzle, poking this plant and that animal and asking if humans could eat it). It was still, however, against protocol, and after her encounter with Steeljaw, she was hesitant to trust anything that came out of the mouth of a Decepticon.

Granted, Steeljaw operated like a smooth con artist, was confident in his charm and chose his words carefully. Grimlock wasn't careful with just about anything, and she didn't think he had the patience to verbally cajole someone into compliance.

Or… maybe that's just what he _wanted_ them to think.

Grimlock's signal was coming from in front of her, a short ways off. The tree line ended, and Strongarm pushed out into a clearing. An open hillside, at least a quarter mile wide. The groundcover was an assortment of local grassy vegetation and small flowers, in a not unimpressive array of colors. Right in the middle was a hulking shape that was clearly not native, unless Earth was in the habit of attracting other large, green Dinobots. He was in his beast mode, the sunlight reflecting off the armored plates that ran down his back. He wasn't moving, lying belly down in the grass, and his tail thumped lazily against the ground every once in a while.

Strongarm set her jaw before taking slow, deliberate steps out into the field. She paid attention to the noise she made, giving the Dinobot plenty of opportunities to hear her coming. He didn't move an inch, even once she got close enough to feel the outermost edges of his field. Her own field was held rigidly close, but Grimlock clearly had few such compulsions to do the same. Nothing vulgar like flaring or the like, but what one might find amongst close friends. Strongarm was assaulted with what she could only describe as the most sublime relaxation she had ever felt in another. Even when she walked right up to one of his haunches, it didn't ripple in the slightest. He did, however, crack an optic open after a few ticks.

"Hey there."

"Grimlock, Lt. Bumblebee has been requesting your presence for hours, now."

"Mmmm, has it been that long?"

"Is your chronometer damaged? He's been comming you almost constantly. And _you've been answering_."

"Yeah, I guess I do remember that."

He "guessed", huh? Cheeky Dinobot.

"Then lets go."

"Yeah, I'm comin'." And he shuttered his optics, letting out a long, easy sigh that terminated in a purring rumble that gave the decidedly opposite impression that he was going to move anything in the near future. Strongarm felt her fists flex, and resisted a frustrated growl. She eyed the sharp purple symbol on his nearest haunch, before giving the Dinobot a firm prod with her hand. His plating was warm. Incredibly so.

"This doesn't look like movement, Grimlock."

"Mmm…"

"Seriously, get up. We still have to hike back to base."

"The base ain't goin' anywhere." His optics blinked open, and he looked up at her in mild confusion. "Is it?"

"No…"

"Ah, good." And he shuttered them again, relieved.

Strongarm did let that snarl out. Stubborn mech, he was almost as bad as Sideswipe, although she did appreciate the lack of snark. Regardless, her assignment was to bring him back to the yard, and she would do that even if she had to drag him.

Ha! As if. She was optimistic, not irrational. If she wanted to be back before the sun went down, she'd need to convince Grimlock that he _wanted _to move. She sighed through her vents.

"Okay, I'll bite. What are you doing out here?"

"Lying down." The Dinobot smiled, and nuzzled his snout into the vegetation. Another content rumble vibrated up from him. She could even feel it through the ground.

"Well, _clearly._" Yes, that was the problem. She would have preferred some walking. Or, even better, his crashing, lumbering run in a straight line back to Denny's yard. "I meant it as a bit more of a 'why'."

"Oh." He cocked one of his hefty brow plates at her. "Y'know, ya could have just said…"

"_Grimlock._" Just…she just needed an explanation. Of any kind, really. Something to keep all reason from melting out of her audials. He regarded her before giving a soft snort.

"I was on patrol…"

"Yeah?"

"…and I found this meadow…"

"Yeah?"

"…and the ground was nice and soft. And the sun is so warm here. So I haven't quite left yet." His smile came back, and he resumed lazily flopping about.

Strongarm blinked. That was it? The grass was soft and the sun was shining?

"Grimlock, I hate to break it to you, but the sun is warm _everywhere_. It's a _sun_."

"Yeah, but it feels better out here, for some reason." He half-cracked one optic. "This planet is weird. But in a nice way."

"It's grass, flowers, and sunlight, Grimlock. None of which are rare commodities on Earth." She gave him another prod. "Get up."

"Why not get down?"

Strongarm frowned, and blinked.

"Say what?"

"Why don't you join me down here?"

"No, thanks." She crossed her arms, determined not to entertain the idea. Relaxation could happen once the work was done. His field continued to protest this.

"Really?" He turned his neck enough to look squarely at her.

"No."

Grimlock's plating split, and she watched as he unfolded back into his root form (a dubious designation, considering how comfortable Dinobots and their cousins, the Predacons, felt in both their forms). He was still belly down in the grass, but he gave a lazy stretch and rolled slowly onto his back with a muffled thump. He grinned up at her, and patted the grass next to him with a huge claw. Seriously, if you weren't an Animech you had no reason to have talons like that in your root form.

"Don't knock it 'till you try it."

Strongarm gave a quiet 'tsk', and watched him wiggle his back into the grass, arms and legs spread wide. Ridiculous. Out scouting the woods, stopped to smell _all_ the flowers.

She scuffed the ground with her foot. It _was_ soft. Sometimes it felt like the whole of the Earth was spongy, and she wasn't used to feeling the ground give so much underneath her pedes. She regarded Grimlock for a moment before kneeling slowly, putting a hand to the grass. Oddly cool, regardless of the beating sun. Grimlock was back to not looking at her, optics closed, and she was well inside his field radius. She was half wondering if Earth's flowers contained a sort of sedative that could communicate to Cybertronian biological systems, because he was just a heaping pile of placid right now.

Maybe a small, brief test was in order. For science, and all that.

Strongarm rocked back on her heels, gingerly setting down on the grassy carpet. Well, it was not _un_comfortable. She let her legs stretch, and leaned back on her hands.

Well. It was… comfy, she supposed, although she did wonder how much of the meadow was going to follow her back to base while stuck to her aft. None, if she could help it; Sideswipe didn't need any more fuel for his evil. Grimlock had more than a small amount of grass blades and flower petals smushed into his broad chestplate, and just about everywhere else, really. He gave no inclination of wanting to pick them off. Strongarm gave a soft snort. Silly, simple Dinobot. She wished she were able to shunt her responsibilities off to a corner of her mind to work on later; she didn't think such a state of utter tranquility was possible for mechs and femmes with work in their queues. The sun sure did warm her plating nice and good, though. It made those knotted cords under her shoulder plates seem a lot softer—

"Cadet Strongarm." She flinched, probably visibly, as her comm crackled. That was _not_ a voice that fielded relaxation.

"Go ahead, Fixit." Or, you know, _don't_. That worked too.

"You have been directly on top of Grimlock's location for a while, now. Is there something wrong?"

Grimlock opened his optics and raised his head to look at her. His field rippled a little, tinged with the slightest bit of disappointment. Big lug knew he could only hold out for so long, especially if she had her superiors barking in her com unit.

"That's a negative, nothing is wrong." Not any more, anyways. _Nothing_ could be wrong when one felt this unwound.

"Lt. Bumblebee is wondering, rather vehemently, when he should expect you both back at base."

Oh yeah. She could almost feel the prickly glare from here. She sighed, and made the beginnings of a rise to her pedes, when a butterfly landed on one of her ankles. It was rather pretty.

A-and it could be endangered! Earth had such fragile ecosystems. Better to wait for it to move along before she started marching them both out of here…

"Don't worry, Fixit," and Strongarm could not stop a smile from skipping over her face. Grimlock must have felt something in her field, because he matched it with a broad, sharp-toothed grin of his own.

"We're coming."

* * *

AN:

Finally fixed Strongarm's lack of a character tag.

Also, I've noticed that almost all the Decepticons shown up until now have an "anthropomorphic" root mode, but still a mutable, rescannable vehicle mode. I'm calling this family of Cybertronians 'Animechs' until I'm supplied with something canon.

There are probably typos in here. I will fix 'em as soon as I find 'em.


	2. Chapter 2 - Backup

Strongarm loved backup. Not for any lack of confidence in her own abilities (er, mostly), but because it meant she went home with fewer scratches, dents, and cracks than she could have otherwise. After getting her clock cleaned (human phrases for battle damaged rolled off the glossa so easily they had all started to use them) by Steeljaw, and the tomfoolery that was wrangling Springload and his _acid coating_, she never took it for granted again.

Even if that backup was Sideswipe. Oh, he never followed any protocol _ever_, but he was great at attracting attention, and nothing made a double team work like having a partner so obnoxious that a Decepticon could get fury-induced tunnel vision trying to squash him. Which then left them open to a wide variety of counter maneuvers. And she would never admit it aloud, but he had a clever mouth, and some of what came out of it was hilarious.

Ahem, slightly droll. Yeah, that's what she'd formally call it.

She was never more relieved to receive support than when the Lieutenant did it himself. He was not the largest on the team, nor the fastest or most agile, but his experience let him move like he was. Bumblebee was able to predict an enemy's movements and adjust at a moment's notice. He rolled with his mistakes without the pageantry of hubris, even when they knocked him across a room and into a wall. His tactics were logical and effective; even when he led with his intuition rather than regulation, their small team came out on top. Her kneejerk reaction to consult her SOPs was as strong as ever, but with the Lieutenant's gentle guidance it was getting easier to react on the fly.

But there was something dark and viscerally pleasing about hearing the thundering footsteps and strut-rattling roar that came before a haughty Decepticon opponent got flattened by a Dinobot.

Right now was a perfect example.

The crew was after a pair of escapees, and apparently the universe had its own sense of humor, since it could have picked any random pair of inmate pods to rupture. But no, this pair had worked together for many, many vorns, and it showed. Hence the desire to split them up as soon as possible. The Lieutenant and Sideswipe were currently having a time trying to stave off the predatory advances of the tall mantoid femme (whose bladed forearms had already sliced clean through several concrete support posts of the parking garage they were fighting in). Strongarm could hear them several floors up. She had her hands full, however, with the heavily armored scorpoid trying to stab her to death.

Note for her personal logs: she meant this as literally as possible. She had a firm grip on the end of his tail, which was pushing her against a wall, as she tried to keep the highly venomous stinger from plunging into her middle. Fixit had been adamant; this was not anything like Quillfire's hallucinogenic neurotoxin. This venom was necrotic, and would cause body functions to fail and die. If not removed from the system fast enough, one's core would eventually seize, and snuff the spark. At least if it didn't cause you to hemorrhage out into your brain first.

Strongarm was starting to question her choice of tactics, however. Next time, she decided that she would dodge instead of block. With her hands busy on the tail, she left herself open to attack from the Decepticon's massive, spiky pinchers. Her opponent had wasted little time in taking advantage of this, stabbing with both his claws. Only with a feat of agility, that Strongarm was quite sure she would never be able to pull off again, was she able to put her pedes against the massive pincers. The force from both the scorpoid's tail and claws braced her back against the wall. And now she couldn't move. This left her very few options, and she couldn't maintain this forever; slagger had the benefit of his weight behind him, and he outweighed her by a good couple tons. If she didn't get out of here quick, she'd get tired, slip, and be either kabobed by the stinger or crushed by the pinchers. He knew it, too, and gave her a carnivorous, maw-framed sneer. Stupid Animechs and their extra limbs with weapons on them…

So it was with the greatest of relief when she registered the vibrating hammering of someone's massive pedes against the ground, and a loud bellow that echoed down the corridor of the garage. He was so slagging late, but right now she wasn't going to complain. The pressure of the scorpoid's tail and claws lessened just slightly as he quirked his head to the side.

"Looks like we're just about done here, Decepticon. That sound is my teammate, and he punches things like you for fun."

His response was a raspy, hideous laugh, which was the exact opposite of what she'd been hoping to instill.

"Splendid. Then he'll get here just in time to watch you die. I'm going to fill you with so much poison it will come out of your mouth." He grinned, and Strongarm grunted as he pushed more power into his tail. That long stinger was now only a hand's breadth from her middle. She could still hear the rumbling approach of an exited Dinobot, and she shot furtive glances down the corridor and _by the slag pools where was he!?_

So she was not quite expecting a massive, toothy maw to come erupting out of the wall beside her head, his huge body careening right behind, sending large chunks of concrete and pieces of rebar spraying across the floor. This caused the concrete at her back to crack and give way, and the stinger in her hands surged forwards once she was unable to brace against it. It never connected, as Grimlock closed a fist around the end of the tail and heaved, snapping it like a whip and sending the Decepticon first smashing against the ceiling, and then crashing back down to the floor. The scorpoid hissed and pulled, but his tail was stuck firmly in the Dinobot's grip.

"Ya know, when a lady has to fend you off with her hands _and_ her legs, it means that she really doesn't want to dance with you anymore." Grimlock smirked before rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck. "But don't worry your ugly little face, I've been waiting for my turn with you all day."

The scorpoid gave another hiss, but brandished his pinchers at the big Rex.

"Then, by all means, Dinobot. Let's have ourselves a ball."

"C'mere, then, bug!"

Clearly, the scorpoid had misjudged his opponent in his pretension. With his most fearsome weapon trapped firmly in Grimlock's hand, he was forced to rely on his claws. These were hardly weapons to sneer at in their own right, but if there was one thing Grimlock excelled at, it was close, tactless physical combat. Even with one hand occupied, Grimlock had three other limbs and a tail to bring the pain with, and he did so with extreme prejudice (he currently had a huge mouth full of sharp teeth as well, but Strongarm had noted that she'd never seen him use them in combat, and had taken incredible offense when Underbite had bitten him; odd behavior for a predatory Beastformer). He pulled hard on the scorpoid's tail, yanking him towards a vicious right hook that connected with enough power that Strongarm would later swear she could feel it in the air and rattle in her chest. Even with the Decepticon's thick plating, the blow clearly knocked a good measure of sense from him. He gasped, vocalizer thick with static. Grimlock used the moment to pin the deadly stinger under a clawed foot, freeing up both fists. His giant muzzle split into one of his wild, almost delirious grins, and Strongarm thought that right now would be a great time to end this. Because she had no desire to get in between a Dinobot and a Decepticon as they continued their extremely one-sided fight, especially when the Dinobot threw punches hard enough to injure a large, bull chompazoid.

She ran up Grimlock's tail and along his back, not bothering to really dwell on her surprise at the lack of give in his form at all, even as he was supporting all her weight on his spine. She fell to her knees at about his shoulders, leaning over his neck and drawing a set of stasis cuffs from her subspace.

"Decepticon fugitive," she grabbed at the first claw, pulling it towards her and into the cuffs, "in accordance with Cybertronian Legal Code Section three-zero-five," and she reached across Grimlock to cuff the other pincher, "you are hereby placed _back_ under arrest." The only response she received was a groan. That knock Grimlock gave him had done some serious damage.

"Aw, it was about to get good." The big Dinobot looked rather dejected, tail lying limply against the ground. He glanced back at her over his shoulder. Strongarm leveled a look at him.

"If your idea of 'good' is later picking up all his energon-soaked pieces from the walls and floor, then I suppose so." She slid down off his back. Well, that had worked better than she'd expected. Rather rude of her though, to use his dorsal plates as stairs. If he took any offense, he didn't say it.

Grimlock gave a mock gasp. At least, she hoped. Sometimes, it was hard to tell if he was being serious or not.

"You wound me. I would have stopped before he came apart. Probably." Strongarm just rolled her optics.

"He looks pretty done as it is."

"Yeah." Grimlock snorted. "Wimp."

"You hit him in the _face_, Grimlock."

"Do you have any idea how many times _I've_ been hit in the face?" He almost looked proud of it.

"I can only imagine." Given his propensity for making his own doors in walls, never mind the amount of collateral damage that tended to result from any sort of vigorous activity that Grimlock found entertaining, Strongarm fathomed he'd taken a lot of objects to the face, from rocks to building structural members to fists and pedes. Speaking of those surprise doors, though…

"Thank you." She waved a hand at the rubble that had up until recently been a fully functional wall. "I do appreciate not being skewered, or doomed to die a slow death from envenomation."

"Wasn't nothin'. I'm just sorry I couldn't be here faster. You guys absolutely gunned it back there. I had to follow your tire tracks." Grimlock looked down at the barely conscious Decepticon in his grip. "Hey Strongarm?"

"Hm?"

"I understand wanting to contain the prisoners quickly and all, but did you have to cuff his claws _around_ my neck?"

What?

Sure enough, in her haste to slap the bracelets on her perp, she had cuffed him around the Dinobot. Grimlock pulled, but the stasis cuffs prevented the Decepticon's claws from moving apart enough for the big Rex to slip his head out from between his arms.

"Oh scrap." Now this was just embarrassing. How on shiny Cybertron had she managed that? Grimlock looked at her, and she could feel her faceplates heating. A slow grin split his muzzle, and she flushed harder.

"Don't even."

"I didn't say anything!"

"You didn't have to. I can feel it."

"Naw, its just funny. Here, I got a hold of him." Strongarm pushed her discomfiture aside at Grimlock bent to allow her access to the cuffs. As she slid her code card across the reader the ceiling shook, and they could hear a yelp from above them.

"Oh by Primus she has my head! Please, _please_ don't let her eat my head!"

Oh yeah, there was still the other one.

While hearing Sideswipe's voice jump a couple octaves as he shrieked was incredibly amusing, it was dampened severely when one considered what the deadly mantoid was incarcerated for in the first place. Grimlock looked hopeful.

"I get to punch the other one, too, right?"

"You'd better. Sounds like they could use our help." Strongarm dug through the rubble to retrieve her proto-blaster from where the scorpoid had knocked it from her hands.

"Aw yeah. Round two!" Grimlock slung the Decepticon over his shoulder. He then galloped off, following his nose after their wayward teammates. Didn't even bother to wait for her. She wasn't too worried, though; all she had to do was follow the trail of rubble.

Strongarm folded into her alt mode and went after him. Her transformation was not as smooth as she would have hoped, and various bits of her frame were tender and sensitive. Oh, she was going to go straight into recharge when she returned to base. There was another shuddering thud, a loud roar, and she could hear the discharge from Bumblebee's sidearm from where she was. Whatever she needed to do to bring this evening's hectic mission to an abrupt end, she would do it.

Her alt mode was pretty hefty, after all. Maybe the Dinobot would get to watch a tired, achy, _totally done with this _police interceptor flatten an oversized, arrogant insect.

* * *

AN:

I was grooving on this until the middle, and then it kinda got away from me. I apologize profusely.

Blah blah typos blah. Fix 'em in the morning blah.


	3. Chapter 3 - Hunter

Her impromptu deployment on Earth had taught Strongarm many things.

Humans were clever and adorable. And sometimes gross.

Even the best Lieutenants sometimes disregarded protocol and made things up on the fly. So far to great success, but no less aggravating. She really was writing them all up in her free time (although she was slowly starting to admit to herself that the more time passed, the less likely she was to turn her reports in).

Decepticons came in all different flavors of Crazy, but only a few variations of Trying to Vaporize You. Also, she really should study that ship manifest again, because so far it seemed like the vast majority of prisoners aboard were Animechs. Seriously, if she saw another set of claws and teeth brandishing a purple Decepticon logo, she might blow a fuse.

The day she could put her foot so far down Sideswipe's intakes that he couldn't speak for a week, she'd throw a party. Or, maybe, he'd finally put his _own_ foot in there. She had hope.

And Dinobots were as surprising as they were straightforward, oxymoron may that be.

Turns out, while stealth may not be Grimlock's thing, he was an excellent tracker. He was so good, he wasn't even aware of it himself. Right now, Strongarm was following him up a steep hill, far enough behind to be out of reach of his massive tail, as he lumbered through the forest with his nose to the ground. Every so often he'd look up, sniff around, and adjust his bearings.

Fixit had explained the science behind it when he'd been busy detoxing Grimlock after the skunkticon debacle (and she would call it such, since they had all given Bumblebee far more aggravation than he'd deserved). While the, erm, _fragrant_ toxins exuded by the skunkticons had effected all of them, they had thrown Grimlock for a particularly nasty loop, regardless of having taken more doses of it. Essentially, he'd been done in by his alt form's exceptionally sensitive scent receptors. While his sense of smell was marginally better than any of the rest of the team's in his root form, his giant beast muzzle contained long tubes loaded with sensors that ran from his nostrils almost right to his brain. Every inch that contacted air created data on his surroundings; what he did with it was up to him. Most was subconsciously processed and stored, but if he decided to focus on it he had a veritable field chemistry lab attached to the front of his face. At least, so said Fixit.

Grimlock himself had been too out of it to give much of a confirmation on the function of his inner workings.

Strongarm believed it, though, considering that her own first meeting with Grimlock was derailed when he lumbered off through the woods chasing Underbite's scent to Denny's scrapyard. It was reinforced now, as he tracked their fugitive through the thick brush.

They were after a known smuggler. While his usual MO was the "run of the mill" passing of illegal goods, he had gotten in over his head when he began trading a series of highly dangerous chemicals to the Decepticons and others for profit. How he'd gotten those chemicals was unknown, but the council had shipped him off to prison as soon as he was sentenced. He was a good sneak; street smart and savvy, he left no trail even through Earth's soft alien terrain, and had been able to deactivate his signal even without Steeljaw's help. Lt. Bumblebee had split the team into pairs to search quadrants around the crash site. While working directly with her CO would have been optimal, only he and Strongarm carried stasis cuffs, or had the training to bring criminals in without beating them half to permanent deactivation; it was strategic, then, to have the two trained law officers spread around.

Being partnered with the loud, brash Dinobot was not usually conducive to finding a stealthy perpetrator who could have heard them coming from a mile away, but Strongarm quickly realized that she had received the boon partner. While searching for evidence of Cybertronian life (which on Earth meant footprints in the dirt and broken branches in the trees), she had been ready to give up and move on to the next area when Grimlock stopped cold, face buried in a bush.

Not gonna lie, her first reaction was to recall her attempt at marching him out of the field near the scrapyard. She did not feel like convincing the Dinobot that now was a terrible time to ponder his appreciation of Earth's flora.

Instead, he raised his head from the bush, and made that deep, airy rumble that caused all kinds of prickly sensations to run up and down her back, and took off through the trees. She thought he had lost his mind, until she realized that he was stopping to smell all kinds of things, even barren patches of soil, that were all in a single, focused direction. He had also ceased to be talkative, well engrossed in the task of detecting the trail of their fugitive. Strongarm could have asked all kinds of questions, and oh, was that a difficult instinct to kick, but instead she just followed him, oddly confident in his nose's abilities. Granted, he was tracking the only Cybertronian trail in these woods other than their own, so it wasn't like sniffing out a single criminal in Praxus. She appreciated the ability all the same. And Earth's wilderness was full of all kinds of odd and _interesting_ scents that could make finding their one Cybertronian rather difficult. Good thing Grimlock was tenacious. He seemed to be getting happier the longer this chase dragged on.

Which was something she pondered while they stomped through the underbrush. The more derisive scholars likened Beastformers (Dinobots firmly included therein) to Predacons and other wild animals roaming Cybertron's undeveloped places. Never mind that Predacons had recently been shown to be just as high functioning as any modern mech or femme, if a bit more susceptible to the dictations of their instinct, and prone to congregating in packs of their own kind. Beastformers, long believed to be the direct descendants of that ancient race, were considered by some to be the prehistoric link to modern Cybertronians, and treated with some of the same prejudice. Namely, "Danger: Little Brains, Brute Strength." Animechs got a similar treatment, especially if their root forms were not bipedal. It still made news when a member of any of these groups bucked the trend and engaged in "loftier," more cerebral pursuits. Strongarm considered this to be unfortunate; the "Form Dictates Function, and Function Dictates Rank" method that had divided classes of Cybertronians during the Golden Age were a primary key to the rise of the original Decepticons, and the eventual abandonment of the planet as it died. Never mind undoing the hard work currently taking place to return Cybertron to its former glory, Strongarm had met quite a few Beastformers and Animechs who she genuinely liked (present company included), some of which went through her cadet academy with her. She thought no less of them than she did of Minicons and average bots. There were some physiological differences that could not be denied, but when Strongarm swore to be the shield of law for all Cybertronians, she genuinely meant it, no matter how many claws or tails or dorsal spikes one happened to have.

Bumblebee had been in pitched combat with the massive revived Predacon named Predaking. She may have to ask some questions when he had a spare moment; considering that Grimlock was big and brawny enough as a ferro-rex, she could hardly fathom facing a full grown cyberdrake that was said to have outweighed Megatron by several tons. And spewed jets of fire from his mouth.

Ridiculous. Nature was a scary thing sometimes. Imagine if Grimlock could breath fire. Strongarm resisted a snort.

Grimlock crested a hill, and Strongarm ran to catch up. She ended up almost crashing right into his rump as he stood, stock still, staring down into a small parking lot that marked the head of several human hiking trails. There were two vehicles in the lot, a rugged white hatchback and grey pickup truck. Neither looked particular Decepticon-ish; in fact, human artifacts could be seen in the bed and windows of the truck. Strongarm sighed.

"Looks like he gave us the slip, big bot. I'll radio the Lieutenant and we'll move on to the next grid." She turned and started to walk back down the ridge; Bumblebee would kill them both if a human coming off the trails happened to see either of them. She may have kicked a rock in disappointment. She wanted to bag their criminal without her CO's help. Or Sideswipe's help. For pride reasons.

She came up short as Grimlock's massive tail swung over across her chest, bringing her to an abrupt stop.

"Hey, Strongarm."

She turned, finding herself face to snout with his huge head. Grimlock turned to point his muzzle back to the parking lot. A pair of humans, a male and a female, had exited the trails and climbed into the truck. In just a few more moments they were gone, and in just seconds more the white hatchback had turned a sickly yellow. And with a nice, contrasting Decepticon symbol emblazoned boldly on the hood.

Camo-paint, or a hologram. Oh, well played; he'd almost squeaked right past them. Would have, too, if not for Grimlock's one sense that was fooled by neither camo-paint nor holograms. Beside her, the Dinobot bared his teeth, and Strongarm put a hand against his flank, intent on keeping him from barreling off without her. She could feel him tense under her hand; Grimlock did not do "sit and wait" well.

"Come in Lieutenant."

"_Go ahead, Strongarm_."

"We've got eyes on our fugitive. He's currently in a small parking lot near the north-eastern trail heads."

"_Copy that, we're on our way. Do not engage until we get there_."

Next to her, Grimlock rumbled. He tilted his head to look at her. This was killing him, she could see it all over his face. Behind them, his tail lashed from side to side, and she could see his hands clench hard.

"We aren't really gonna just sit here, are we?" Because only Grimlock could make his fifteen-some-odd tons look pitiful.

She shouldn't. She _really_ shouldn't. But her pride was doing terrible things to any rational logic she currently had.

"Oh, look! He's moving! I think he's, um, armed, yeah. If we don't take him in soon, he could be a danger to any humans coming to hike out here!"

Grimlock frowned.

"What? He hasn't gone anywhere—oh." Grimlock grinned hard, baring all his teeth. If she weren't expecting it, it might have shocked her in its ferocity. "_Ohhh. _I get it."

Strongarm smirked.

"You help me bag this guy before Bee and Sideswipe get here, and I promise you can take a draw of my energon rations for the next week."

"Please. I'll help you bag him for free."

"Okay, but the offer still stands." She meant it, too. If she could drop a captured Decepticon at Bumblebee's feet when he arrived, she would give Grimlock just about anything. Within reason.

"A'ight. You have any strange rules on punching?"

"Yes. As hard as you possibly can without destroying him. Kinda hard to cuff a bot with no hands to cuff." Seriously. Also, ew.

If possible, Grimlock smiled harder.

"Cross my spark and hope to die."

"That is still the creepiest human saying I've heard yet." She drew her proto-blaster from her waist, and brought out a set of cuffs from subspace. Fast and hard, he wouldn't even know what hit him. And on the way in, she'd bother to read him his rights.

Her com unit crackled.

"_Strongarm, did you copy? Do not engage until we back you guys up_."

She grinned, transformed and took off down the hill. Grimlock roared, and broke into his ballistic, lumbering gallop. If the convict didn't know they were there before, he sure did now.

"I'm sorry, Lieutenant." Strongarm rolled hard around a tree, barreled through some shrubs and launched her self out into the parking lot. "But I can't talk now. We've got our hands full of hostile perp. Well, Grimlock's got his hands full."

Oh, she was lying like a dirty rug, but she'd explain that later. She was about to drop a Dinobot on a Decepticon, and it was still early afternoon.

If hunting with Grimlock was always this fun, she'd have to do it more often.

* * *

AN: Oh, Strongarm. Be glad Grimmy doesn't breathe fire. Or, y'know, wield a flaming sword. Just sayin'.

Until supplied with something canon, I will be using the term ferro-rex (ferro referring to ferrous metal) whenever a Cybertronian refers to Grimlock's beast form. Because Cybertron does not have t-rexes. I'm sure cyberdrake is self explanatory.

Brief rant: In episode 16, they say Grimlock weighs three tons. Bull. He's a freaking dinosaur made of metal. Unless that metal is super light, I won't except any weight less than fifteen tons. A city bus, without passengers, weighs about twenty tons. I can't wrap my head around Grimlock weighing much less than that. Considering some Earth pickup trucks can haul about ten tons, Strongarm can probably do an easy fifteen.

Rant off.

There are typos in here, I will try to find them all.


End file.
